


Losing Sleep

by aintnosocrates (Nelfan)



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Erwin is hot, Fairytale AU!, Levi has sleeping problems, M/M, Mikasa is a badass, as always, as usual, like he didn't have enough
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-10-23
Updated: 2013-12-30
Packaged: 2017-12-30 05:11:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1014513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nelfan/pseuds/aintnosocrates
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He is not crazy, he is fully aware that Erwin doesn’t exist.<br/>Levi has been dreaming about Erwin Smith for as long as he can remember.  Until he moved into the Survey Apartment House and nearly 29 years of dreams suddenly stop. A dreamless Levi starts to think that he might just be crazy enough to want them back.<br/>Then Erwin Smith showed up in the flesh at two a.m in the fucking morning and everything went to shit.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. lately

**Author's Note:**

> Un-beta-ed so this is a bit of a clusterfuck...

He lays in his white goose feather bed as he listens to the tap of Erwin’s perfectly polished boots coming down there marbled hallway . He struggles to get up as the perfect golden light of the sun streams through the window. Erwin walks in with a tray of fruit, which he sets on the bedside table. His blue connects with Levi’s own brown eyes.  
“There is my monster, awakened from his slumber.” He says chuckling as Levi wipes his eyes. Levi can feel a smile fighting onto his face. Erwin pushes him lightly back down to his bed. He feels lips touch his forehead chastely and rough fingers caressing the back of his neck.  
He closes his eyes as he finally lets himself smile as he relaxes into the perfection that is Erwin Smith.

“Levi!”

His perfect world is shattered in a moment.

He wakes up in his bunk at the orphanage and swings his feet to the cold cement floor. He looks up to the wall clock. Its 5:00a.m, he doesn’t need to be up till 7:00. But the sniffling girl in front of him makes him re think his plans. He pats the spot next to him and she sits down on the blue sheets of his four-poster bed. Her hair is covering her eyes but the tear tracks down her face are fresh. He puts his own small arm around her body.

“Akerman.” She hiccups reigning in her tears. Levi rubs her back as soothingly as he can.

“What’s wrong Mikasa?” she is the last person he expected to come crying to him.

“I’m scared Levi, what if they end up not liking me? I’m not very ladylike and I don’t get along with people and I’m quiet and not very smart…. I am not really daughter material!” she whispers quietly looking down at her feet.

Levi is silent as he contemplates her fears. This is not the first time a younger orphan has come to him with pre-adoption jitters. But, Mikasa, strong Mikasa, is only one he can understand. Though they are not friends, neither of them are the kind for friends, they both recognize they are the same. As if they were molded from the same clay.

But, now they are different. In four hours Mikasa is leaving the orphanage.

And Levi will be staying.

“Tell me about your hero again Levi.” mutters Mikasa.

“hmm? Well I don’t know if I feel like telling stories right now brat.”

“Consider it your going away gift to me.”

“Oh, so you don’t want the gift I’ve spent weeks preparing for you?” He says leveling her with a glare.

“ Well I’d like a story as well.” She pouts.

“Oh fine. Now let me think…” he taps his chin mockingly as she pulls his blanket around her.

“ He is on patrol with his men in the slums of the city, deep in the underground tunnels.” Mikasa squeals lightly. This is her favorite one.

“ And there is a struggle up ahead!” she whispers. Levi shushes her.

“Who’s telling the story twerp? Anyway so there’s this fight in the tunnel a little ways ahead. A greasy criminal gets knocked to the floor and that when Erwin see’s him, the tall thug –“

“That’s you!”

“-His handsome good looks shock Erwin to a stop. Their eyes meet for a split second and-“

“Just like that he’s gone!”

“I swear to God, Mikasa if you don’t shut up…”

“Sorry sorry, keep going!”

“As I was saying, the thug has disappeared over the rooftops while leaving an impression on our hero…”

Levi talks and talks. He talks until the black haired girl is sleeping soundly, he talks until the sun rises above the treetops and the orphanage slowly starts to wake into life. Until he smells the toast burning downstairs and hears the babies crying.

This is how most of his days start. The only difference is that Mikasa is leaving.

And that it is his fourteenth birthday.

He nearly died the day he was born. Every star shined brightly in the heavenly sky as a baby was left in a dumpster. He had been wrapped with a thin white blanket and he had slept soundly beneath the starlight. At least that’s what people tell him. No one knows how long he laid there and no one knows how he survived the night with only a blanket to warm him.

When he was found they saw that Levi was embroidered on that blanket. The rest is history.

Boy lives in orphanage, boy is never adopted, and like most orphaned children, boy dreams of a better life with a loving family. That’s where Erwin comes in, he’s been dreaming about Erwin Smith for as long as he can remember. They aren’t always in the same place but there is one constant, the fact the blond man unconditionally loves Levi. He is not crazy, he is fully aware that Erwin doesn’t exist. But, the younger kids love his “hero” stories and it just feels nice. It’s nice to know that someone loves you, even if that person is not real.

Erwin was a comfort in the lonely nights at Rose Orphanage. When Levi watched Mikasa walk away to greet her new family, the dreams stayed. When he graduated high school, when he graduated college, when he started working as a cleaner for the rich and famous, the dreams still visited him. Every night, without fail, he would dream of Erwin Smith.

Until he moved into the Survey Apartment House, and the dreams suddenly stopped.

And Erwin Smith showed up in the flesh.


	2. merry birthday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oh,the weather outside is frightful. And Levi is fucking cold.

“Would it kill you to smile?” says Erwin as they ride along the cobblestone streets of the capital.

“Quite possibly, yes.” Levi replies looking out the window.

“How about just for me?” Levi can feel his hands warm as Erwin grasps them in between his.

“How about you go fuck yourself?” Levi answers while roughly pulling his hands away.

“And don’t touch me with your gross-ass fingers.” He murmurs as bells begin to ring.

“What?” The clanging of the bells become louder as they get near the tower. So much so, that Levi covers his ears.

“This is a dream.” He realizes.

“Huh?!”

 

“You’re NOT REAL!”

* * *

 

Levi wakes up to his phone ringing.

“Merry Christmas you midget!”  says Mikasa as Levi picks up his cellphone from the floor and answers her call.

“It’s my birthday you idiot, and I don’t celebrate Christmas I’m Jewish.”  He mumbles into the phone as he burrows himself into his covers.

“Pfft. You are so full of shit Levi you’ve never been to a synagogue in your life.”

“Levi is a Jewish name ergo I am Jewish.”

“You’re just pissed that you have to share your birthday with our Lord and Savior.”

“Oh just shut up. What do you want anyway? Or did you just call to piss me off?” he exclaims as he pulls himself out of bed.

“Haha. Ok I’ve got some good news for you.”

“You’re pregnant and naming your kid after me? Oh wait, you’re a lesbian, never mind.” He says, rummaging in his cupboard for a pair of sweatpants.

“Bisexual, I’m bisexual. You’d think a gay man would be more respectful of someone’s sexuality.”

“ I was born this way brat.”

“Yeah, born too short for a heart.”

“Again is there a point to this conversation besides making fun of me?” he growls into the phone as he pulls up his pants.

“Alright alright.  An apartment opened up at S.A and I told the land lord that I knew a great possible tenant.”

“ And who would that be?” he asks throwing a shirt over his head. He walks to the small living room that he shares with his roommates, kicking Erd awake on the couch and retrieving the paper from the front stoop.

“You of course! And I only ask one small favor in return for getting you this great opportunity.”

“Oh here we go, why am I not surprised?”

“Hear me out! You don’t even know which apartment it is.”

Levi rolls his eyes and switches the phone to his other ear.

“Ok, who was the dumbass who moved out?”

“Well it’s a long story…”

“Make it a short one.”

“In one word? Gay.” Levi narrows his eyes and looks out the window.

“Expand smartass.”

“So you know how Christa and Reiner were living together?”

“Yeah yeah, blonde girl and incredible hulk, aren’t they getting married in May?”

“Well the weddings off and there are two to replace it.”

“ Um, what?” he asks,  he hears someone yelling over the line, there is some scrambling and then Armin’s voice comes through.

“Turns out Christa was struggling with being in the closet and then our neighbor Ymir proposed to her and for awhile everyone was really confused and then we hear that Reiner had actually been in love with Bertholdt, the guy who works at the Starbucks near Pixis’ Bar and Grill.  So those two eloped and moved in together. And Ymir and Christa are taking the wedding slot for May! And get this! Reiner is now a successful nude model!”

“Ok, didn’t need all of that.”

“Anyway Ymir moved out so it’s a one bed one bath apartment with your name on it and all you need to do is…” the end of the sentence is spoken so quickly that Levi can’t understand him.

“Speak up, I didn’t quite catch that?”  There is some more scrambling on the line as the phone is handed back.

“We need you to take Eren in with you. He’s a constant third wheel, I love my brother but he’s a major mood killer.” Says Mikasa her voice turned serious.

“Yeah, no way in hell.”

“Come on, he’ll pay half the rent!”

“Thanks but no thanks.”

“He’ll sleep on the couch. I know you don’t like being alone, think of it as your Christmas gift to me.”

“ You know I don’t fall for that shit anymore.”

“Just come by for a visit today o.k? I’ve gotten you a good present this year.”

“Oh fine, you brat.”

“See you soon.”

“Bye.” Says Levi as he flips his phone closed.

“Ugh, some things never change.” He mumurs to himself as he hears Petra begin to cook something delicious in kitchen.

“Hey Petra get me some coffee, I can already feel a migraine coming on and it’s not even 10:00 yet!”

* * *

 

When Levi gets to Mikasa’s apartment the door opens before he can even walk in.  He comes face to chest with a guy who has two-toned hair and is being screamed at by Eren in the entryway.

“I swear to God, Jean, you need to get the fuck out of here! Levi is going to be here any minute and I don’t want you and your horse shit around!” he yells, throwing a pillow at the aforementioned Jean.

“Um, should I come back when this lover’s spat is finished?” asks Levi peeking into the doorway around Jean. Eren’s face morphs into a mortified expression and then full on anger as he stalks to the door and pushes Jean into the hallway. Jean whispers something that makes Eren go blood red.

“Get the fuck away you horse face.” He says as Jean begins to walk away laughing. Eren turns around with a nervous grin to Levi and motions him inside.

“So Jean, huh?” says Levi raising an eyebrow.

“Oh God, never. That guy is like my mortal enemy, and a total loser.”

“Birds of a feather flock together Jager.”

“Yeah well he’s a horse so that doesn’t even make sense.”

“He means you’re both losers.” Says Mikasa getting up from the couch to give Levi a hug.

“So are you impressed?”

“Of what?”

“How clean the apartment is!” says Armin coming out of one of the bedrooms. Levi turns towards him then proceeds to look around there small kitchen and living room.

“And who did all this?” he asks, swiping a finger across their coffee table and plopping down on the couch.

“Eren did. All by himself.” Says Mikasa, pulling a present out from under the tree.

“Oh really. Now I know you’re just trying to tempt me.” He says taking this present from her and opening it. He sees the leather book cover engraved with a golden rose and flips it open to the first page.

“The Hero of the Roses. A Collection of tales spun by Levi Rose and written by the children of the Rose Orphanage. Oh Mikasa, you didn’t.”

“I did.” She says, smiling and putting an arm around him.

“ I called up some of the kids and asked everyone for their favorite stories. Every single person emailed back. And then called up a favor at the publishing house and got it binded professionally.” She continues.

“Aw hell, now you’re making me mist up.” He whispers clasping the book to his chest.

“Well it is your birthday and Christmas so I thought I’d give you something doubly good.”

“I appreciate it.”

“So what exactly is _The Hero of the Roses_ , Levi? Mikasa wouldn’t tell me anything about it!” asks Eren leaning over Levi’s head.

“It’s just these stories I used to tell, nothing special.” Levi says placing the book gently in the box.

 

* * *

 

The rest of the evening goes smoothly as they sit down together and eat birthday cake and leftover Christmas ham.  The T.V gets turned on after dinner and they watch the Christmas Story, Armin laughs so hard he has to use the restroom. Which makes Eren laugh so hard that orange soda comes out his nose. Levi and Mikasa just smile.

When it’s time for Levi to go home, Armin puts some food in a Tupperware container and forces it onto him. Eren is fast asleep on the couch and Mikasa pulls a quilted blanket over him.

“I’ll do it.” The older man whispers.

“You’ll what?” she whispers back.

“I’ll move in with Eren across the hall.” He says, sighing in defeat as she runs up and gives him a bone-crushing hug.

“Thank you so much. You are the absolute best!”

“Yeah, yeah,” he says prying her away and rolling his eyes.

“I got to get home now, brat. You know being nice makes me want to take a shit.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> yooooooo please give me feedback it would be much appreciated!


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